Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
been in daily conversational use for well over 2,000 years. Israelis have endowed Hebrew with
a modern vocabulary that expresses their experiences and worldview.
But use of Hebrew is not exclusionist. The knowledge of foreign languages, especially En-
glish, is widespread. There is no stigma to using English. On the contrary, it has social prestige
value and is much used at the higher levels of the educational system since many necessary
texts are not available in Hebrew. More generally, far from erecting protectionist measures
against foreign infl uences, Israelis remain very much open to them, and if the imports do not
contradict core values, people are quick to incorporate them into their society.
Another result of having a small, mostly coherent society is the importance of informal
connections for getting things done, from fi nding jobs to buying goods at a discount, cutting
through government bureaucracy, or obtaining inside information. This networking tech-
nique is identifi ed by an Israeli word,
protectzia
, meaning a personal contact — either direct
or through a friend, relative, or string of people —with someone who can get things done to
one's benefi t.
This contact is not necessarily someone who is powerful, and the use of protectzia certainly
does not imply bribery but rather personal favors. Often a low-level connection, a clerk for
example, can be more valuable than a high-level manager. Government bureaucracy can be
as maddening in Israel as anywhere — often more so —but there is always a way around it by
using the close-knit human networks.
Israelis' highly vocal confl icts, rebellious tendencies, and relentless self-criticism often lead
outside observers to underestimate Israel's strength and solidity. Yet the fl ip side of these dy-
namics — a strong sense of common identity and unity — permits such apparent friction to
exist without a deep threat to the social fabric. Although Israel does not lack crime, injustice,
and mistreatment, there is a clear sense of limits, especially regarding public issues. Truly seri-
ous national quarrels — the Ashkenazic-Sephardic discord of the 1970s; the responses to Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in 1995; the passionate debate over the 1990s peace
process — triggered powerful popular efforts to resolve them.
Given that Israel is a Jewish state, a nation-state in the sense that most countries have been
for the past couple of centuries or more, its citizens have a bond stronger than merely living in
the same geographic area and under the same government would create. Living in a country
that has been under attack and knowing the cost of oppression historically also binds Israelis
together.
Beyond these points, however, is the factor of choice. In general, Israel's Jewish citizens have
chosen to live there, despite historic and present-day opportunities to go elsewhere. The fol-
lowing lines from Gilbert and Sullivan's
HMS Pinafore
capture this sense of choice.
For he might have been a Russian,
A French, or Turk, or Prussian,
Or perhaps Italian!
But in spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations,
He remains an Englishman!
